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I tried to register with Crain's online to view the article but after registering, Crain's claims that the article is only available in the site's archives which requires a paid-membership. Very strange considering the article is from today.

The glass skin is only the most pronounced change coming to the 41-story tower, between West 41st and West 42nd streets. New floor-to-ceiling windows will border 30,000-square-foot floorplates. The lobby will be enlarged, and a landscaped plaza will be built. A sky lobby with a cafe and Wi-Fi Internet access will be added on the 23rd floor.

The estimated tab for the construction is $260 million.

"This is going to be the newest New York landmark," says Don Huffner, an executive vice president at Equity Office Properties.

Verizon, which was the sole occupant, has started vacating the building. Brokers started marketing the available 1 million square feet last month. New tenants are expected to begin occupying the building in the fourth quarter of 2007.

The Verizon Building is one of a trio of midtown office towers with big blocks of space coming on line over the next 24 months. The Bank of America tower at 1 Bryant Park, at West 42nd Street, will have roughly 1 million square feet available, and the new headquarters of the New York Times Co. at 628 Eighth Ave., between West 40th and West 41st streets, will put another 700,000 square feet on the market.

For large companies in search of new real estate, one lure of the Verizon Building is its signage rights, which will allow an anchor tenant to rename the building, says Robert Alexander, chairman of the tristate area for CB Richard Ellis, which represents the building.

"Potential tenants include banks that may have a strong interest in branding, such as foreign or national banks like Wachovia or the Royal Bank of Scotland," he says. The Verizon Building also has elevator banks that will enable larger tenants to have exclusive access to their floors.

While the Verizon Building will be priced between $70 and $80, the Bank of America tower is likely to command asking rents exceeding $100 a square foot, says Robert Sammons, the head of research at Colliers ABR Inc. That is in part because only the upper--and generally more expensive--floors will be available in the Bank of America building.

"The Verizon Building and the Bank of America Building will be very competitive," Mr. Sammons says. "They are across the street from each other, and both have a better location than the New York Times Building," he says.

Verizon sold 1.03 million square feet, or nearly 80% of the building, to Equity Office Properties last year. The telecommunications giant has retained 200,000 square feet on floors 6 through 12 for a telephone switching station.

(1) Didnít gensler do 340 Madison and the new retail at the gm building for HarryAnd 1120 6th avenue.(2) I was just by the bush tower today, A. why donít they knock down the bush tower and make a larger building, And b. There is a building to the east of the bush tower (in between the bush tower and the verizon building/plaza) itís about 2 stories what is that it looks like s